29 May 2014

Antennas for 6m Es

One of the amazing things about the Magic Band (6m) is that for Es (sporadic-E) propagation, and I suspect for F-layer, almost any antenna will work. For years I have used just a V2000 VHF triband vertical with excellent results including the USA, Azores, North Africa, Ukraine and Israel worked with low power SSB/CW or spotted on  WSPR.  Polarisation often gets twisted so a beam is NOT needed.Yes, for tropo DXing a horizontal beam might well help but many GDX paths involve aircraft reflection where polarisation is also twisted.

A simple half wave vertical for 6m is at http://users.belgacom.net/hamradio/schemas/on6mu_6meter_verticalantenna.htm .

2 comments:

  1. Hi Roger,

    Although polarisation twisting certainly does occur. You may find that the V-2000 (and other similar antennas) with one tuned radial on 6m provide some degree of horizontal polarisation in certain directions.

    See:-

    http://ea4eoz.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/modifications-to-diamond-v2000-and.html

    Regards,

    Martin - G8JNJ

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  2. Of course that is true Martin. My point is that with Es the polarisation is of little consequence if signals are randomly twisted over the path.



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